How BYOD Programs Can Fuel Inquiry Learning. Backchanneling.

creating a learner profile, a set of criteria the school district wanted students to learn while in school. That profile includes: seek knowledge and understanding; think critically and solve problems; listen, communicate, and interact effectively; exhibit strong personal qualities; and engage and compete in a global environment. The profile helps guide all approaches to learning in the district.

Kids already know how to use their devices, but they don’t know how to learn with their devices,” Clark said in an edWeb webinar. It’s the teacher’s role to help them discover how to connect to content, one another and learning with a device that they may have only used for texting and Facebook previously. “It’s about the kids being empowered in the classroom to make decisions about the ways that they are learning,”

Four Smart Ways to Use Cell Phones in Class

IN-CLASS BACK-CHANNELING: Backchanneling refers to the use of networks & social media to maintain an online, real-time conversation alongside spoken remarks.

IN-CLASS READINGS AND HANDOUTS. Smartphones can also be used productively in the classroom as eReaders for books and handouts. You can place all student handouts into DropBox folders (see “Dropbox A Multi-Tool for Educators”).

The Geoboard is a tool for exploring a variety of mathematical topics introduced in the elementary and middle grades. Learners stretch bands around pegs to form line segments and polygons and make discoveries about perimeter, area, angles, congruence, fractions, and more.

The world is overrun with zombies. You are a part of a squad of highly trained scientists who can save us. Using your math skills and special powers you can treat infected zombies to contain the threat.

It’s part math drills, part seek and find game and totally engaging. Kids ages five and up should find this both fun and challenging. Parents should rejoice that finally there is a way to get kids to want to do more math. – Smart Apps for Kids

FREE and fun picture math games for kids designed by the iKidsPad team. This free iPad math app dynamically generates thousand of beginning counting games with different themes and number levels. Great interactive and challenging games helps young children build up basic counting skills and number recognition.

Math Puppy will take you on a journey of educational fun like never before!
From toddlers to grade school, for Children of all ages – Math Puppy is the perfect way to build up your math skills. Your child will be able to enjoy a constructive, supportive, interactive fun filled environment while mastering the arts of basic math.

While your rocket is floating weightlessly in space, the real fun begins! Play one of the many fun math missions. Each mission has touchable objects floating in space, including stars, coins, 3D shapes and more! Earn a bronze, silver or gold medal and also try to beat your high score. Missions range in difficulty from even/odd numbers all the way to square roots, so kids and their parents will enjoy hours of fun while learning math.

Use your math skills to defend your treehouse against a hungry tomato and his robotic army in this fun action packed game! Choose between ninja stars, smoke bombs, or ninja magic – and choose your upgrades wisely!

Based on the classroom hit Middle School Math HD, Elementary School Math HD is a stunningly beautiful and powerfully engaging application built for today’s technology-driven elementary school classroom. Emphasizing game-playing and skill development, the eight modules in Elementary School Math HD have been carefully designed by classroom teachers to provide the perfect balance between fun and the practice of fundamental skills

MathTappers: Multiples is a simple game designed first to help learners to make sense of multiplication and division with whole numbers, and then to support them in developing fluency while maintaining
accuracy.

Two Player Bluetooth Math Game! You can use two devices and play competitively or cooperatively with your classmates or parents. Ordered Fractions provides a comprehensive tool that offers an innovative method of learning about comparing and ordering fractions.

SlateMath is an iPad app that develops mathematical intuition and skills through playful interaction. The app’s 38 activities prepare children for kindergarten and first grade math. SlateMath forms the foundation of numbers, digit writing, counting, addition, order relation, patterns, parity and problem solving.

Number Stax is a puzzle game to test your number skills! Drop numbers and operators in the correct places to match the number or expression shown at the top of the screen to score. You can’t remove tiles but you can swap them around. You can freeze the game at any time, but remember to watch the clock! Eliminate tiles, score points, and earn bonuses and achievements for as long as possible until your grid is full! Remember, the longer you play the faster it gets. Share with your family and friends to see who can get the highest score.

Developed at the Stanford School of Education, Motion Math HD follows a star that has fallen from space, and must bound back up, up, up to its home in the stars. Moving fractions to their correct place on the number line is the only way to return. By playing Motion Math, learners improve their ability to perceive and estimate fractions in multiple forms.

Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Socrative is designed in such a way to help teachers make classes more engaging and interactive.It also helps teachers initiate activities and prompt students with questions to which students can respond using their laptops or smartphones. The good thing about ScSocratives that it can run on any kind of device with internet connection: iPads, iPods, laptops, smartphones so students will never miss out on any learning acidity.

She said that “iPads are a consumer device; I don’t feel they’re really designed for education.” Ms. Einhorn favors tablets with what she calls “greater functionality,” such as Microsoft’s Surface tablet.

As a “technology-agnostic” organization, the International Society for Technology in Education does not take a position on specific devices, but CEO Brian C. Lewis observed that, “within a short period of time, tablets have become almost ubiquitous. What we forget is that, in another three to five years, another new thing will transform not only our world, but what’s happening in the classroom.”

Mr. Lewis said he has heard too many stories of schools and districts that purchased technology before planning how to use it to drive learning.

This past week, I had the privilege of introducing US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, as a guest moderator for #edtechchat, an educational Twitter chat that I founded with four members of my personal learning network (PLN). Over the course of 60 minutes, almost 2,000 people from around the world, shared about 10,000 tweets in response to the Secretary’s six questions related to being a Connected Educator. Secretary Duncan (@arneduncan) and his Office of Educational Technology (@officeofedtech) deemed October “Connected Educator’s Month” for the second straight year. To close #ce13, Secretary Duncan used the #edtechchat forum to engage in conversation with educators from all over the world.

In reflecting on the chat, many people asked how to get started, and how to possibly follow such a quick flow of information. For one, 10,000 tweets in an hour is by no means typical; but then again, neither is the opportunity to interact with the US Secretary of Education. Although this particular chat with the Secretary may be an extreme example of what possibilities can arise when connecting with others online, each week there are over 160 chats that occur. Virtually all topics are covered in some fashion. Whether you’re a 4th grade teacher (#4thchat) in Maryland (#mdedchat), a principal (#cpchat) in Arkansas (#arkedchat), a new teacher (#ntchat) in Rhode Island (#edchatri), or a parent (#ptchat) connecting on a Saturday (#satchat), there’s something for you.

Start small. Choose a chat that peaks your interest. Lurk, listen, and learn. When you’re ready, jump in head first. Grow your PLN and get connected through a Twitter chat this week! Your students will benefit.

– See more at: http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_tom_murray/quick_start_guide_twitter_chats#sthash.W1DPfmY1.dpuf

Technology is not a magic bullet.

Professional development for administrators and educators often focuses on the “how does it work” as opposed to how should we use this to help students make meaning, communicate, collaborate, and create? Many unfairly assume that educators are chomping at the bit to design instructional learning experiences using technology. This is true in some cases. In other cases, laptops are used as paperweights at worst, and for word processing at best. Tablets are used for games and low level practice skill and drill. A teacher who focuses on memorization and low level thinking skills will not all of a sudden change their stripes when handed a new device. – See more at: http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_chad_evans/technology_not_magic_bullet#sthash.jlEDWr4T.dpuf